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<H2><A NAME="2_1">The First Questions You May Have</A></H2>
<P> This chapter is a txt2tags overview, that will introduce the program
 purpose and features.</P>
<H3>What is it?</H3>
<P> Txt2tags is a text formatting and conversion tool.</P>
<P> Txt2tags converts a plain text file with little marks, to any of the
 supported targets:</P>
<UL>
<LI>HTML document</LI>
<LI>XHTML document</LI>
<LI>SGML document</LI>
<LI>DocBook document</LI>
<LI>LaTeX document</LI>
<LI>Lout document</LI>
<LI>UNIX man page</LI>
<LI>MagicPoint presentation</LI>
<LI>Creole 1.0 document</LI>
<LI>Wikipedia page (MediaWiki)</LI>
<LI>Google Wiki page</LI>
<LI>PmWiki page</LI>
<LI>DokuWiki page</LI>
<LI>MoinMoin page</LI>
<LI>PageMaker 6.0 document</LI>
<LI>AsciiDoc document</LI>
<LI>ASCII Art text</LI>
<LI>Plain Text (no marks)</LI>
</UL>
<H3>Why should I use it?</H3>
<P> You'll find txt2tags really useful if you:</P>
<UL>
<LI>Need to publish documents in different formats</LI>
<LI>Need to maintain updated documents in different formats</LI>
<LI>Write technical documents or guides</LI>
<LI>Don't know how to write a document in a specific format</LI>
<LI>Don't have an editor for a specific format</LI>
<LI>Want to use a simple text editor to update your documents</LI>
</UL>
<P> And the main motivation is:</P>
<UL>
<LI>Save time, writing<B> contents</B> and forgetting about<B>
 formatting</B></LI>
</UL>
<H3>Why is it a good choice among other tools?</H3>
<P> Txt2tags has a very straight way of growing, following basic
 concepts. These are the highlights:</P>
<TABLE>
<TR><TD><I>Source File Readable</I></TD><TD>Txt2tags marks are very
 simple, almost natural.</TD></TR>
<TR><TD><I>Target Document Readable</I></TD><TD>The target document is
 also readable, with indentation and spacing.</TD></TR>
<TR><TD><I>Consistent Marks</I></TD><TD>Txt2tags marks are simple
 symbols, designed to be unique enough to don't mix up with the document
 contents.</TD></TR>
<TR><TD><I>Consistent Rules</I></TD><TD>As the marks, the rules that
 applies to them are tied to each other, there are no &quot;exceptions&quot; or
 &quot;special cases&quot;.</TD></TR>
<TR><TD><I>Simple Structures</I></TD><TD>All the supported formatting
 are<B> simple</B>, with no extra-options or complicated behavior
 modifiers. A mark is just a mark, with no options at all.</TD></TR>
<TR><TD><I>Easy to Learn</I></TD><TD>With simple marks and readable
 source, the txt2tags learning curve is user friendly.</TD></TR>
<TR><TD><I>Nice Examples</I></TD><TD>The<B> sample files</B> included on
 the package gives real life examples of documents written for txt2tags.</TD>
</TR>
<TR><TD><I>Valuable Tools</I></TD><TD>The<B> syntax files</B> included
 on the package help you to write documents with no syntax errors.</TD></TR>
<TR><TD><I>Three User Interfaces</I></TD><TD>There is a user friendly<B>
 Graphical interface</B>, a handy<B> Web interface</B> easy to install
 in intranets and a<B> Command Line interface</B> for power-users and
 scripting.</TD></TR>
<TR><TD><I>Scripting</I></TD><TD>With the full featured command line
 mode, an experienced user can<B> automatize</B> tasks and do<B>
 post-editing</B> on the converted files.</TD></TR>
<TR><TD><I>Download and Run / Multi-platform</I></TD><TD>Txt2tags is a
 single<B> Python script</B>. There is no need to compile it or download
 extra modules. So it runs nicely on *NIX, Linux, Windows and Macs.</TD></TR>
<TR><TD><I>Mature</I></TD><TD>First released in 2001, txt2tags is now a
 mature program with years of improvements and bug fixes, extensive
 documentation, translations and an loyal user base.</TD></TR>
</TABLE>
<H3>Do I have to pay for it?</H3>
<P> Absolutely NO!</P>
<P> It's free, GPL licensed.</P>
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